Solvay Divests And Invests

Solvay plans to sell its 70% stake in the polyvinyl chloride producer Solvay Indupa. With headquarters in Argentina, Solvay Indupa has 520,000 metric tons per year of PVC capacity at plants in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, and Santo André, Brazil. It lost $93 million on $709 million in sales in 2012. Separately, Solvay is investing $100 million to build an 85,000-metric-ton-per-year plant in Włocławek, Poland, for highly dispersible silica, which is used to make fuel-efficient tires. Solvay expects to complete the plant in 2014. Combined with an expansion in China, the project will boost Solvay’s capacity for the silica by 30% to 500,000 metric tons.